


Say it in flower

by Blindvogel



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-21 23:51:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7410091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blindvogel/pseuds/Blindvogel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A modern AU where many things are misunderstood and truth is spoken with flowers.<br/>(I also suck at summaries so if you have a better one just tell me!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Geraniums and Peony

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ScrawledScript](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScrawledScript/gifts).



> This started out as (and still is) a birthday present ficlet for the lovely ScrawledScript, but I had a lot of fun with the premise so there will be more. As in, actual Perc'ahlia.

“It’s going to be fine, Vax. Your grades are top notch, even father won’t be able to find any fault in those.”  
Vex’s arm was linked with her twin brother’s as she escorted him to their father’s law firm and their monthly meeting to discuss his studies.  
“When has that ever stopped him from complaining?” Vax interjects.  
“Never, but it gives you leverage. Cheer up, brother dear, at least good grades are the only thing he expects from you.”  
Vex bumps his shoulder and tilts her umbrella lower to protect them both against the rain that is now pouring down even harder. Count on Vax to forget his at home on this day.  
They are only two street corners away from their destination when a spray of cold water drenches Vex's entire left side and stops them in their tracks as she gasps and freezes on the spot. Her eyes dart automatically towards the quickly receding, offending car that had doused her in puddle water, as she tries to discern the license plate number.  
“Fucking fuck!” She swears emphatically.  
“You okay?” Vax asks and she nods while fishing out her phone to type down the number before she could forget it. Her brother leans in to have a look and chuckles.  
“What’s so funny?” Vex snaps irritated.  
“I know exactly who that car belongs to. You could just go and kick in his door if you want to, sis - that was the new junior partner in the firm.”  
“Shit.”  
“Not good?”  
“Of course not good. I’m not supposed to bust his ass, I’m supposed to get that asshole flowers.”  
Vex is cold and wet and very, very pissed now.  
“Orders from our dear dad?” Vax asks emphatically and she nods. “Well, you come up with something.”  
“You bet. Now get your ass moving or you’ll be late.” She presses the umbrella into his hand and steps away, “I’ll see you for lunch.”  
“You sure you don’t want it?” He holds the umbrella half-heartedly back out to her.  
“Already soaked and miserable here, won’t make a difference. Now go!” She shoves his shoulder and turns to head back home. 

It’s a frigging long walk when you’re wet and cold and Vex’s mood does not improve at all until after she stands below a hot shower and dresses - for the second time today - and an epiphany hits her. If she has to buy flowers for that dick, fine. But she’ll get something out of it too, something to satisfy her need for revenge.  
Usually she would never allow herself the luxury but the whole fucking incident has eaten up half her morning already and she needs some extra time so Vex calls a cab to pick her up and drive her to that sweet little flower shop half a block away from the firm. With the cute florist that Vax has a crush on. He thinks Vex doesn’t know but he’s her twin brother and of course she knows. The humongous amount of potted plants in their shared apartment didn’t come from nowhere. Another reason to visit that place again.

The inside of the flower shop is just as she suspected, painted in warm earthy colors and full to the brim with all kinds of plant life. Potted plants line the walls and a selection of cut flowers are residing in the middle in a pleasant, color-coordinated arrangement. It smells of greenery, wet earth and the sweet cacophony of a wide variety of blossoms.  
The pretty redhead, Keyleth, just finished up with another customer when Vex approaches and smacks a twenty on the neat surface of the counter.  
“Darling, I need your help. How do I passive-aggressively say “Fuck you” in flower?”  
Keyleth looks at her slightly dumbfounded and a blush starts to spread across her cheeks.  
“Well, I wouldn’t- really- really?” She stammers and for a moment Vex fears that she will need to ask Google for help with that one but then hears a low chuckle next to her and turns around.  
The customer that Vex ignored when she stormed into the shop is still standing next to her with a bemused grin on his rather handsome face. He’s tall, dressed in a well cut, most certainly fiendishly expensive suit and blue eyes twinkle at her from behind silver rimmed glasses. From behind she had assumed him to be old, judging by his shock of white hair but he looks rather her age, maybe even younger.  
“I think I might be able to assist you with that.” He says in a raspy, but euphonious baritone.  
Vex lifts an eyebrow but then smiles broadly at him and his lips pull into a mischievous grin.  
“You’ll want geraniums since they mean stupidity, meadowsweet for uselessness, yellow carnations say ‘you have disappointed me’ and orange lilies for hatred. Possibly foxglove if the receiver was insincere.” He tells her while pointing out the flowers in question.  
“Thank you so much for the help.” Vex says and gifts the stranger with a bright smile, then moves to the cut flowers to assemble her bouquet of loathing.  
It looks quite striking with all the colorful flowers and the best thing is that neither her father nor that pompous prick of new partner will know what it means. A wicked grin spreads across Vex’s face, the thought almost makes up for her ruined dress.  
“I almost pity the person on the receiving end of that flower arrangement.” She hears the man say as he heads for the door with his own beautiful bouquet. They give each other an appreciative nod and Vex winks at him just for good measure. Maybe even sees him blush a little as he exits the shop. Should have asked him for his number. Oh well.  
Keyleth takes her time re-arranging the flowers that Vex picked out into a more pleasing order and wrapping them, rather reluctantly at first, but when Vex tells her the story of her morning encounter with the recipient she puts much more gusto into it and even grants her a small discount which immediately raises Vex’s opinion of the woman by several notches. 

Armed with this secret weapon and her brother’s umbrella Vex makes her way from the flower shop to the law firm, quietly humming the Imperial March to herself.  
The poor sod at the front desk winks her through and she takes the elevator up to the executive floor - where she promptly runs into her father. Could the day get any worse?  
But it seems that luck is for once on her side as he only takes a look at the flowers in her hands and gives an acknowledging nod, which is almost praise from him in her books, then continues on to wherever he was headed, leaving Vex to find the direction to her destination on her own.  
She breathes out a rather relieved sigh and goes on the hunt for the office of the new asshat.  
It doesn’t take her long to find it, the sign at the door is still so new they hadn’t taken the protective plastic lamination off yet. She gives it a quick glance at first and then has to stare for a while at it to digest what she read. Who the fuck had such a name nowadays? Percival Fredrick- fuck, she’d not gonna remember that, ever.  
Vex squares her shoulders and gives a sharp knock on the door, but then opens it and enters the room without waiting for a reply.  
“Sorry to barge in but my father-,” She goes to say but the remainder of the sentence gets stuck in her throat when she sees the man in front of the desk, staring back at her from behind silver rimmed glasses. Shit. Really?  
Percival von something clears his throat as his glance jumps from her face to the flowers in her hands and back. For a minute neither of them speaks, the whole improbability of the situation making them speechless. Then Vex steps forward and presses the bouquet into his unresisting hands.  
“Welcome to the firm.” She says without looking at him and quickly turns to leave the room.  
Her exit is cut short by Vax who runs into her just as she comes through the door. He seems to be in a rather good mood and hands her another bouquet - one that looks strangely familiar.  
“Good that I found you. That one’s for you, sis. Now come on, lunch and freedom awaits!” He grabs her elbow and pulls her with him back down the hallway to the elevator, leaving behind an open door that Vex hears being closed just as they reach the end of the corridor.  
“Where did you get the flowers?” Vex asks him as they are on their way down.  
“Percival got them for you. He was sorry he couldn’t stop and apologize in person but he said he was already late for a meeting with our dad, and you know how that goes. So there.”  
Vex stares down at the beautiful white blossoms in between all the green and feels a pang of regret, albeit only a small one.  
“How did he know-”  
“He recognized the umbrella.”  
“Oh, right.” Not many people ran around with a big bear-umbrella around here. 

They head home for lunch and after they’ve eaten and everything is cleared away again Vex sits down behind her laptop, a vase with the bouquet next to her at her desk and googles the flowers so neatly arranged in it.  
There’s white lilac and lily of the valley that mean humility, peony that stands for shame and a myriad of tiny white flowers that she recognizes as the Star of Bethlehem and the meaning she knows of, forgiveness. He really thought that one through. Well.  
As she runs her hand over the tiny blossoms her fingers graze something stiff and when she pulls at it she soon holds a white card in her hand, with neat cursive handwriting on it. 

An apology and the offer to pay for drycleaning. And his number. Well. What to do?


	2. Daisies and Hyazinths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vex works and worries and buys more flowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big fluffy thank you to ScrawledScript for beta-ing and supporting me and in general be the loveliest person.

Vex stared undecidedly at the card in her hands, twirling the cream colored cardboard between her fingers. It would be weird to call him now, right? What would she even say?  
_Hey, thanks for the flowers and oh, sorry for those other flowers. The offer for dry-cleaning still standing?_  
_Yeah, no, totally weird._  
She continues like this for a while, possible conversations going through her head but none resolves to her satisfaction. When she next glances up at the clock it’s almost an hour later and Vex jumps up from the table. Shit, she has to get to work.  
She quickly shoves the card with the number into her pocket and grabs her purse and jacket on her way out. 

It’s Tuesday so she makes her way to Strongjaw Ale, Grog’s Bar and Brewery, where she tends the bar and takes care of the finances three days in the week. Tuesdays are her favorite, it stays mostly quiet and she usually gets through the previous week’s ledger without getting bothered too much by the patrons.  
Of course there are the regulars who demand her attention, chief mischief manager among them being Scanlan Shorthalt, a music teacher at the local school and Grog’s best friend, who flirts shamelessly with her at every opportunity but means nothing by it. 

Today she is alone in the bar for the first hour which gives her the time to finish looking over the books in record time - and then stare again at the small piece of cardboard.  
_Really, what could have been the odds for the whole incident? Someone up there really had a strange sense of humor._  
Vex is interrupted again in her thoughts by a gaggle of customers coming in who settle in at the other end of the bar and she absentmindedly leaves the card on her end to walk over and supply them with drinks and her customary smile. She holds a light conversation, knowing it will sell more drinks, and is on the third round of refilling glasses when another patron comes in and settles at the exact opposite end of the bar, gives a short wave towards her and the other party. 

What happens next is something Vex hates, and curses the movies for, every time it occurred: in a well meaning but poorly executed show of support a freshly filled glass is taken from her hands and slid over the counter towards the newcomer. Of course it's done with too much force on the wrong end causing it to wobble and topple over halfway, pouring liquid over the bar and only Vex's quick reflexes save it from a shattering demise on the floor.  
What she can not save is the now completely drenched card that she had left and forgotten on the bar. She curses under her breath as she tries to gently dab the liquor off it, but it the ink is already smearing and bleeding into the paper, making the writing partially illegible.  
_Fuck. Shitballs. Why did he have to use a fountain pen? Fuck. So much for that dry-cleaning offer, she really could have used it._  
Resigned, she cleans up the remaining mess and leaves the card in a safe place to dry, then returns to her work slightly miffed. 

When she comes back home that night, tired and in a subdued mood, Vax is already in bed. So she just toes off her shoes, fishes the beer-stained card out of her pocket to drop it on the bedside table before flopping still fully dressed on the bed and falling asleep just a moment later. 

When Vex wakes the following morning it is to a rather unpleasant thought: what if Percival tells her father about her flowery insult? She doesn’t know him, can’t make out his character from the short interaction they had. He might, he might not, she can’t be sure either way.  
Vex doesn’t much care if Syldor is mad at her -that’s nothing new- and she is long past the age where he frightened her. But right now it might fall back on her brother, a leverage he wields against her just as skilled as Vex does her charm, and she earns not enough -by far- to pay for the rent and Vax’s studies.  
She doesn’t know what to do. She is too proud to apologize and anyway, he deserved it - a little less when she turns her head and regards the little white flowers in the bouquet on her desk.  
With a sigh she rolls out of bed and peels herself out of yesterday’s clothes to disappear into the shower and get dressed for another day of work. Today it’s off to Zahra’s, an upscale outfitter “for the modern gentleman” as her lovely boss and friend likes to call it.

Vex spends this day and the next in a slight state of worry, expecting her father to call or Vax to return home with bad news. (She hasn’t told him about the whole flower incident, better not to worry him too when she isn’t sure herself.)  
But Friday comes around, the little blossoms on her desk start to droop - and it’s not a bad half-life time for cut flowers, really - and there’s no news from Syldor. So he must have kept quiet, she thinks and feels suddenly quite grateful. 

Zahra, always the perceptive one, has noticed Vex’s shifting moods over the last two days and chooses this morning to approach her about it.  
“Darling, what’s been going on with you recently? Is everything alright?”  
Vex nods. “Yes, yes. Don’t worry.” She’s silent for a moment then adds, “Do you remember what I told you about that accident I had Tuesday?”  
“Yes of course. You told me you got an apology for it, correct?”  
“Yes. The thing is,” and here Vex pauses again and rolls the words over in her head before continuing, “before the apology actually reached me I kind of, I don’t know, insulted him? And I’m quite sure there was flirting before that happened. Gods, this is complicated!”  
“It certainly sounds that way.” Zahra responds with a dry chuckle. “Maybe it helps when you tell me the unabridged story.”  
Vex nods and over the course of the time it took Zahra to fill up and empty her coffee cup she describes to her the events that led to her current predicament.  
“So what you are saying,” Zahra sums up, “is that you feel like you owe him for not telling on you to your dad? Is that the problem?”  
“Yeah.” Vex sighs and nods. “ You know how much I hate owing people. And I don’t know what to do about it.”  
The older woman laughs. “Well, dear, it’s really easy. Just say thank you.”  
Vex’s eyes blow open and her lips curl up in a grin. “That’s genius!”  
Then her face falls again in realization.  
“But how? I told you, the number on the card is unreadable.”  
“How did you insult him in the first place?”  
Now it is Vex who laughs and kisses the other woman on the cheek.  
“You are brilliant! I’ll be right back, quickly borrowing your car!”

Vex takes the car down to Keyleth’s flower shop and storms through the door, startling the young woman.  
“Darling, I need your help.” Vex repeats her greeting from a few days ago and watches the cute florist swallow and look nervously at her. She grins.  
“Don’t worry, nothing quite so outrageous like the last time, the opposite actually.”  
Keyleth relaxes at those words and a radiant smile spreads across her face, reminding Vex exactly why her brother had a crush on the woman.  
“Okay, then tell me, how can I help?” She asks enthusiastically and comes around the counter to stand next to Vex, absentmindedly brushing her long hair over her shoulders.  
“I need a bouquet that says ‘Thanks for not telling on me’.”  
Keyleth claps her hands in delight and moves over to and around her selection of cut flowers, picking out the ones she deems fitting, and after a quick glance towards Vex’s expectant face she also happily divulges their meaning to her.  
“We’ll start with daisies since they say ‘I will never tell.’, then add blue hyacinths for sincerity and,” she makes another turn and picks up more flowers, “hydrangeas for gratitude. And some fern to round it up, it symbolizes confidence and protection. This should do the trick.”  
Keyleth returns to the counter where she binds and wraps the blossoms and greenery into a pleasing order and shape, and protective paper.  
“Who are these for, if I may ask?” She wonders and sends Vex a curious glance from below her thick eyelashes.  
“Well,” Vex hesitates before answering, “funnily enough for the exact same person I bought the last bouquet for.”  
Keyleth’s eyes grow wide at that, and Vex pays in a hurry and takes her leave before she can be asked any more questions, which she is sure wouldn’t be as easy to answer. 

Vex leaves Zahra’s car parked where it is and walks over to the firm, where she asks the woman at the front desk first for a piece of paper and a pen, and then leaves instructions where to deliver the flowers to.  
(She’d really rather not go up herself. Accidentally running into Syldor and having to explain to him, or rather lie to him, what’s up with the flowers is not very high on her list of things she wants to happen to her today. Or in general, really.) 

-The note she tucked into the flowers reads as follows:  
_Thanks. I guess we’re even now._  
(She has added her number, too, for good measure. Just in case.)

Rather satisfied with herself, Vex returns first to the flower shop to fetch the car and then back to Zahra’s to finish today’s work.  
Sometime during her afternoon coffee break she checks her phone on a whim, only to find a text message from an unknown sender waiting for her. Curiously she clicks on it.

From: Unknown  
_I beg your pardon, but I don’t think I understand correctly. The whole incident was my fault in the first place. (Though I do appreciate the flowers - the others had begun to droop.)_

Vex lets out a startled laugh. He had kept the flowers, despite knowing what they meant. What a strange man.  
Then the opportunist in her kicks in and the hope of getting her dress fixed takes over.

To: Percival (smthg smthg de Rolo)  
_In that case I’d gladly accept the offer of reparations, if it still stands. (And my pleasure, I think.)_

She smiles as she pockets her phone and finishes her coffee, before returning to the shop floor. The next time she is free to check it is when she and Zahra have closed the boutique and she’s on her way home. Another message is waiting for her.

From: Percival (smthg smthg de Rolo)  
_The offer still stands, of course. When would you like me to come and pick it up?_

Vex lets out a jubilant Yesss and she quickly replies, wanting to make sure it gets done soon before he can change his mind. 

To: Percival (smthg smthg de Rolo)  
_How about tomorrow afternoon? Does that work?_

By the time she gets home they have exchanged a dozen or so texts, and Percival has agreed to meet her tomorrow at Grog’s to pick up the dress.  
Vax greets her with dinner ready on the table and they eat and talk, about his plans for the weekend, her silliest customers of the week. It’s companionable and warm and when Vex returns to her bedroom this evening, she’s in a very good mood.  
Her gaze falls on the flowers on her table, and on a whim she picks a few of the still fresh blossoms out of the whole and slips them in between the pages of her favorite book to dry, marking the page with the cream-colored card from her bedside table. Then undresses and falls into bed.


End file.
